Land for homeless

This was disclosed Friday by Port-of- Spain Mayor Joel Martinez at the corporation’s statutory meeting, held at the City Hall, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain.

Martinez did not want to disclose the location and the cost of the homeless centre, and he indicated he would leave the announcement for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, to make.

“We have had a number of discussions over the last couple of months on the way forward in dealing with the homeless community.

We have set up a committee to take us forward in proposing how we will put up a building to serve the homeless committee and to run it over the next couple of months.” He continued, “The committee is to chart the way forward and to develop structure and scope. Also, to develop a public private partnership between the stakeholders which are the business community of Port-of-Spain, the city corporation, and the government of TT.” He assured the public the project will work because the plight of the homeless has been around for more than 25 years.

Martinez said an attempt was made 25 years ago through an assessment centre at the car park, at Riverside Plaza.

“It has served its time and it’s now considered now not fully appropriate to serve the homeless. As we can see at this time, the homeless are spreading throughout the city of Port-of-Spain into all the suburbs. Hopefully this will be the start of a project that will see some light at the end of the tunnel.”